NEW YORK (AP) — A man seeking “a private audience” with Donald Trump by climbing the Republican presidential candidate’s skyscraper was hospitalized on Thursday after his arrest a day earlier on charges of reckless endangerment and trespassing.
The New York Police Department identified the climber as 19-year-old Stephen Rogata, of Great Falls, Virginia, though his legal name is Michael Joseph Ryan.
It was unclear when Rogata would appear in court or if he had an attorney who could comment for him. There was no immediate response to a message left Thursday at his family’s home in Virginia.
Rogata made a spectacle of himself on Wednesday by spending three hours scaling the glass facade of the 68-story Trump Tower in Manhattan using large suction cups before officers hauled him to safety through an open window. He was taken to a hospital for an evaluation.
A day before the ascent, police said, the climber posted an online video addressing Trump. He called himself an “independent researcher seeking a private audience with you to discuss an important matter” and said he was willing to risk his life “to get your attention.”
Police were treating the tower climb as a potentially dangerous stunt, saying there was no indication Rogata wanted to hurt anyone.
According to a police report in Fairfax County, Virginia, the climber’s parents reported him missing in November 2014 after he ran away from home — with plans to live on the streets of Miami — before he agreed to return the next day.
His parents told police that Ryan, then 18, became angry when they took away his Internet privileges for spending too much time on a “blog on government issues in the United States” and neglecting his schoolwork.
“His entire life focus is on that blog,” his mother, Gina Ryan, told police, according to the report.
The tower on Fifth Avenue is headquarters to Trump’s presidential campaign and his business empire. Trump also lives there, but he wasn’t there at the time.
A Trump Organization representative didn’t respond to a request for additional information about building security in the wake of Rogata’s climb.
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